Kausani!!!

Kausani

Day 3

Day 3 started with our morning tea. We enjoyed the tea and started gearing up for the later part of the day. The agenda for us was to finish our breakfast first and then set out for Kausani. We had struck an agreement with our driver from yesterday to take us down to Kausani. Following our breakfast, we settled our outstanding with the Hotel. Meanwhile the driver was out at the gate waiting for us to start. It had rained heavily last night and we were a bit concerned about our impending trip to Kausani. While the heavy rains had subsided in the morning the drizzle had continued. Their was not any let up in the drizzling and we had to start amidst the rains and the winds. We started for Kausani at about 10:30. As a preventive measure, wife had taken a tablet of vomistop post breakfast to preempt any vomiting sensation while maneuvering the merry go round roads of the hills. Rains continued and so did we on our way to Kausani. It took us all of two hours to reach my wife’s native. It’s a place which is a couple of Kms short of the hilltop at Kausani.

We joined my mother – in –law and brother – in – law there and it was a good get together. A small place like this offers a good opportunity to interact with the members of the family and also to unwind. We enjoyed our ginger tea as we reached there and it tasted quite different from the ginger tea back in Delhi. This ginger carried a special flavour which was quite refreshing. We would continue to enjoy this flavour for another couple of days. God of rains showed no mercy and the downpour continued. This would sure impact our plans to trek up to the hilltop of kausani to catch a glimpse of Himalyan range. The weather remained cloudy mitigating all our prospects to enjoy the view of himalyan range. The good thing about this was the endless gorging on our pahari food which included Jholi, Buduk, Bhat ki Chikuni and seasoned vegetables. We clicked a few pictures of the cloud clad mountain tops. Though the rains had played spoilsport it did add to the beauty of the scenic views in the vicinity. We finished our dinner at about 8:00 and were off to bed by half past 8:00. This was by any means too early for us to hit the bed. The TV here was out of order though we did have Tata Sky connection available here. We played antakshari for sometime before we fell asleep.

Day 4

Next day’s agenda included visit to Kot ki Devi to offer our prayers. The route ot Kot ki Devi temple goes via Kausani, Kausani Tea Estate, Teet Bazar , Garur and finally Kot Ki devi temple. One of the interesting things to observe was a point at Kausani where the district changeover happens between Almora and Bageshwar. I clicked snap of the sign board mentioning the district handover. From this point on we entered district Bageshwar. We moved on to visit the point at Kausani which offers unhindered view of the Himalayan ranges. Owing to the bad weather and cloudy conditions we could not catch any glimpse of it here. We moved on to reach the Kausani Tea Estate and decided to stop by on our way back home. We then continued our descent and after sometime reached a place called Teet Bazaar. Teet Bazaar is situated in the valley region and boasts of availability of schools, inter college and dispensaries etc. Teet Bazaar has branches of State Bank of India and some others. The SBI ATM here was quite a respite. Low on cash this would be utilized to withdraw some cash on our way back. The place is also believed to have highly fertile land and hence, the land in this area fetches a much higher premium as is claimed by the local people. Since this is situated at a valley it was time for us to end our descent into the valley and start the ascent instead.

We started our ascent and in sometime crossed Garur. After this we reached a fork where one of the ways would lead us to Gwaldam while the other would continue into Bageshwar District. Gwaldam route is the route to the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. A few paces away was located the temple of Kot ki Devi. The folklore goes that this was the place where Goddess incarnated as a bunch of Bhramars with five strings to kill the evil called Arun. The Goddess is also called as “Bhraamari” on account of the incarnation. It is situated at a hilltop. We offered prayers to the Goddess and received Prasad from the Pujari ji. We also met there with a team of adventurers who were on the trail to explore Kumaoni region. They were covering the temples, rivers and other important landscapes across the region. Their party was also spoilt by the rains. After offering prayers, we had tea at the temple. We went around clicking pictures and sought pujari ji’s permission to check if the pictures of Goddess could also be clicked. He answered in the affirmative and my wife happily captured a few pictures.

Then started our trip back to Kausani. We stopped by at Baijnath Temple. For anyone visiting Kausani and nearby areas it’s a must watch / must visit place. The temple holds significance because, according to Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva and Parvati were married at the confluence of River Gomati and Garur Ganga. Dedicated to SivaVaidyanatha, the Lord of Physicians, the Baijnath temple is actually a temples’ complex built by the Katyuri kings with the idols of Shiva, Ganesh, Parvati, Chandika, Kuber, Surya and Brahma. Also the town of Baijnath draws its name from the temple. Situated on the left bank of the Gomti River at an elevation of 1126 mts, the temples are constructed in stone. The main temple that houses a beautiful idol of Parvati is chiseled in black stone. The temple is approached from the riverside by a flight of steps made of stones constructed by the orders of a Katyuri queen. On the way to the main temple, just below the house of the Mahanta, is the temple of Bamani. Legend goes that the temple was built by a Brahmin woman and dedicated to Lord Shiva.

After this we started back for Kausani. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and gorging on our pahari delicacies. Even as we gorged we planned out our next day for which the agenda was essentially to go to the Kausani Hilltop and have an unhindered view of Himalayas in addition to visiting the local sights such as anasakti asharam, state bungalow etc. The agenda also included offering our prayers to Golu Devta in the first half of the following day.

Day 5

Day 5 started a bit early as we prepared to get ready for our trek up to the temple of Golu Dev. It is situated on the way up to Kausani hilltop. By the time we got up, we realized that my wife’s maternal grand dad had already scaled the route up to the hilltop and back once. We wondered if we would be able to match his vigour when it came to trekking up the slope. Anyway, we were eager to offer our prayers to the deity who is considered to be one of the strongest deities of our region. I was particulary happy to have got this opportunity because till date I had only heard or read about Him but today was the day when I would offer my sincere prayers to the powerful deity.

We collected the necessary items from home and started our trek. It was not too far in terms of the distance and hence, did not take us long to reach the temple. The temple is surrounded by picturesque landscape. The region is marked by strong air currents. We struggled to light up the havan kund the fire from which would be used to light the stove nearby on which the Prasad for the puja shall be prepared. It took exercising of some grey cells on the part of my wife to light the havan kund. She was absolutely delighted to see it working for us and of course so were all of us! While mom-in-law got busy beautifying up the temple premises, I went away with my wife to fetch water from a natural stream nearby. The water would be used for puja and allied activities. The stream was tapped using an artifact, cast in stone, identical to the face of a lion and the water poured out of the mouth of the lion. It is said that the artifact has been existing for a very long time. The story goes that once a local fellow stole the artifact, however, the same night he was sensitized by Golu Dev in his dream to restore the artifact unless he cared little of the continued well being of self and family. The artifact was restored in no time and since then it has been there serving those who visit the temple to serve the mighty Golu Dev.

In fact, Golu Devta is considered to be the strongest in the entire Kumaon region. Recently, there was a piece of news flashed on STAR News which covered the Golu Temple located at Chitai region in Almora district of uttaranchal. The temple is known to have delivered justice to those who lost their cases in the courts. Such people turn to Golu dev and offer “Bells” with stamp paper / papers with their request penned on the same.

One of the members prepared the Prasad on the stove while the rest of us offered prayers to the devta in presence of the family priest. Following the puja we accepted the Prasad and started our descent back to the grand dad’s home. As I mentioned earlier, the temple is marked by picturesque landscapes surrounding it. We, hence, clicked a good number of pictures in the sprawling greens.

The descent was quicker than expected and we were soon home. This reminds me that we had been fasting since morning to offer our prayers to the devta. Having done that and being home again, it was time for us to address our hunger pangs which by now were mellowing out not because we had been hungry for too long but because each one of us had had the Prasad to our heart’s content. Nonetheless, there was some room to eat more and we decided to fill the remaining room. Since it was time for lunch by the time we got back so we had our lunch and went off to enjoy our forty winks.

Even before we decided to go for the catnap, we had planned out the second half. After we get up, we would take a cab to go to the Kausani top, meet some relative there and cover some other tourist places there. This also included our visit to the tea estate managed by a private company which is located over the top to the other side of the hill. After we got up, we headed straight to meet one of the relatives at Kausani. Apparently, grand dad has entrusted these relatives with the responsibility to run his hotel as it was becoming too demanding for him to pursue active business. We met them and discussed the ynamics of the region and the tourist season at kausani. That left us with some interesting insights about the tourist cycles of the region. We learnt that this was the Bengali tourist season. Beginning dussera till diwali is a period of vacation in Bengal and hence, a lot of Bengali tourists head off to the hill which is further facilitated by good connectivity between Howrah and Kathgodam. So much has been the rush of Bengali tourists during this season that some of the restaurants have started seasonal hiring of benagli cooks and have also started displaying the menu in Bengali. An enterprising Indian lives everywhere, as much in the Bharat as in India.

We kept our visit to the relatives brief and chose to move on to the tea estate since we wanted to cover it much before sunset. The road to this tea estate makes for a refreshing drive down the hill. Panoramic views line the roads providing a soothing experience to the senses. From Kausani top, it would be about half an hour drive down to the tea estate. The tea estate is set up at a nice location and has a couple of outlets right opposite it selling a variety of tea. Entry to the tea estate can be secured at the payment of Rs. 5 a person following which one is required to enter the personal details in the register kept at the entrance of the estate. We noticed that the place attracts tourists from places like Italy! This couple from Italy had just emerged from the estate when we walked in. We went down to the estate and were ushered in by one of their staff personnel. He took us through the entire cycle of tea in making. The set up was marked by huge installations capable of handling large volumes of tea leaves at a time. The processed tea was actually in the form of pruned down dried tea leaves which looked a bit golden in colour. Sooner than later we realized that the estate was churning out high grades of tea which were quite expensive. To quote an example, one of the grades of this processed tea was priced at as much as 22k a kg while another grade was pegged at 15k a Kg. On the terrace was spread the different grades of tea being processed in the estate. Here they allow you to taste the different grades of tea at a nominal cost. We tried two different grades of tea here and must I say that it tasted simply delicious. Of course, you taste the pure tea with no milk added in. Without milk it’s the degree of bitterness which defines the quality of tea to me. I maintain that both grades had almost no bitterness and even without milk it tasted awesome.

Having understood the process and having tasted the tea, it was time for us to go out to have a look at the actual tea plantations which spread across the stairs of fields staggered around us. It was a beautiful sight and our first brush with any tea estate. Before this, I had either only heard of it from those who have been to Darjeeling / other relevant places or watched some of those ladies plucking the tea leaf in some movie or commercial. We clicked a couple of pictures of the scenic views all around us before we left the scene for others to appreciate the beauty of it.

We started our ascent back to the Kausani hilltop soon after and within half an hour we were approaching the Anasakti Ashram where Gandhiji is said to have spent some time meditating. I am sure he would have enjoyed the break . Anasakti Ashram has a pedestal created a couple of paces away from the entrance and next to it is a large statue of Gandhiji. The pedestal is meant to be mounted in order to have unhindered view of the Himalayas. Since the weather had turned a day before and the clouds crowded the horizon we had little chances of having that unhindered views. The view was no doubt obscured by the clouds at the horizon. We went around and enjoyed the other scenic views at the site. The place was a bit crowded as a lot of tourists could be seen squatting there. Many of them, I am sure, would have come to have a look of the Himalayas but as luck would have it, it was not to be.

Nevertheless, we moved on and started for State Bunglow. The state bungalow is at quite a height and enables you to have a look of the valley from a high point. Even the state bungalow was under renovation and the admission to the same was limited. Besides,

we were anyway late for the occasion as they do not let tourists in after about 3 in the afternoon. We tried to go around the state bungalow to check out any other entry point but met with little success. Finally we drove further up to have a look at Kumaon Vikas Mandal Guest House and I found it quite a set up to stay there and spend sometime there. In terms of advantage it improves your reach to certain other places down the hill on the other side of it. We then started back for home. Day 5 was concluded by dinner at home following which we retired to our beds.